FOX News Poll: 53 Percent Support Sotomayor for Supreme Court

Public support for the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has increased since President Obama first announced her as his pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter. If Americans were voting, 53 percent say they would vote to confirm her, up from 46 percent last month.

A FOX News poll released Friday finds the predictable partisan divide on Sotomayor, as 72 percent of Democrats say they favor her confirmation — about two-and-a-half times more than the 29 percent of Republicans who do so. Among independents, 53 percent would confirm her.

But Americans have their doubts about the honesty of nominees. By more than two-to-one people think nominees are more likely to say what they have to say to get confirmed (62 percent). Less than a third think nominees are more likely to answer questions honestly (30 percent).

The number of Republicans favoring her nomination increased 10 percentage points, from 19 percent in June to 29 percent now. Still, a 54 percent majority of Republicans say they would vote against the nominee, down 1 point from 55 percent.

As most Democrats supported Sotomayor from the beginning, their support has held fairly steady — increasing just 3 percentage points (69 percent in June to 72 percent today). Click here to see the poll.

Overall, 29 percent of Americans say they would vote against confirming Sotomayor, down from 32 percent (8-9 June 2009). About one in five are unable to give an opinion (19 percent).

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Sotomayor on July 28.

Some 41 percent of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of Sotomayor and 24 percent unfavorable. In polling conducted soon after her nomination was announced 36 percent had a favorable view and 18 percent unfavorable.

The number of Americans unable to give an opinion on the nominee has dropped to 34 percent, down from 46 percent (8-9 June 2009). Still, this increased visibility has not improved Sotomayor's overall net favorable rating. In the current poll, more view her favorably than unfavorably by a 17 percentage point margin, while in June polling more viewed her positively by 18 points.

Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from July 21 to July 22. The poll has a 3-point error margin.

While abortion has been a major focus of recent nominations, most Americans (69 percent) think selecting justices for the high court is about more than that. Majorities of Democrats (70 percent), Republicans (66 percent) and independents (70 percent) think so. Just one in five people (22 percent) think picking justices is mainly about the issue of abortion.